1989 Town Car chugging & hard to start. Help!

[gadget73]

don't need any special tools to pull the upper intake, and its something that can be done in the driveway. I've done injector swaps in my back yard before, though that was in the summer when it wasn't cold and miserable. If you've got a major vacuum leak in one of those lines, theres nothing you can do to fix it short of fixing it. You will need vacuum lines on the new motor too, and if there is enough of a problem that its making it run bad, you'll waste enough in fuel that its worth fixing now rather than later.


Unhooking the line to the egr valve is probably not going to tell you much. If there is something hanging it open, you'ld have to remove the valve an make sure it shuts. It could also be the sensor, but you'll need to make sure there is nothing physically sticking it open first.

[DerekTheGreat]

Knowing my luck I'll bust a bolt or destroy something I can't undo. Surprisingly she gets 16mpg+ while I'm lucky if I see numbers in the 14.5 range. She does a bit more freeway than I do though. We swapped her IAC and EGR. I cleaned the EGR as best I could before slapping it on but didn't touch the manifold. Looked open but if there are chunks beyond those little ports how am I supposed to clean them?

[VicCrownVic]

Removing and replacing the upper intake is pretty easy as long as you keep track of all the lines and where they go. The basic tool set that you mentioned should be enough to do the job if you decide to do it.
I don't think cleaning further into the intake was why it was mentioned, it was mentioned because the vacuum lines hidden under there that are likely dry-rotted could cause rough running conditions.

Also with the upper intake off it's a lot easier to replace the PCV and the EGR cooler lines if those are due to be changed.

[gadget73]

if there aren't chunks where the pintle sticks out, then don't worry about it. The big thing is to make sure there isn't anything right there that can jam it open.


The screws that are the biggest bitch to get loose are actually the little bitty ones that hold the 5.0 EFI plate on. If you can get that off, the rest is easy. T15 (or is it T20?) bit stuck in there with a whap from a hammer does about as well to get them broken loose before trying to turn as anything else I've tried.

[DerekTheGreat]

Ok ok, I'll work up the confidence to pull the manifold.. Seems like it's going to be cold in MI permanantly now and with the short days it probably will wait until spring. I wouldn't mind pulling the manifold of a freshly installed used HO motor but my mind has a hard time doing anything to an engine that will just be sold later down the road ya know? Aside from the occasional funkiness her car runs pretty damn good. But seeing as we don't know when we'll get around to doing the swap and how much we'll have to spend (My rough estimate is $1,600) it's probably best that we fix up the NoPo. How can I test the EGR valve? All I did originally was try to push in the pintle with my hand. I got some resistance about half way in and so I cleaned it and kept cleaning it until there was barely any. I didn't try sucking on it though as I didn't think my lungs would produce enough vacuum to do anything. At this point I just feel like throwing new parts at it.

Also, I've heard the manifolds are reversable. So when we farm out the HO swap they'll just give the upper manifold a 180 and so we'll be able to use all the stock cables and what not?

Thanks again for putting up with my "amaturity"

[gadget73]

hand vacuum pump to test it. It needs to hold vacuum, and when the valve opens the car needs to start running horrible. If it does both of those things, the valve and the passage are good. If you still get codes, check the vacuum line from the valve back to the solenoid that works it. Leaks there will make it not open. If it gives some other code, it could be the position sensor is wonky.


and yes, the HO upper just reverses and sits the same way the stock one does. Unless you want to make it considerably more difficult at least.

[DerekTheGreat]

OK, we'll start there. She's been driving her beat up & rusty I6 5 speed F150 & refuses to drive the TC until we get velour seats for it so it might be a few days.

Nope, I like things to be easy! That's pretty awesome. Why do people say the EGR passages need to be bored out? Is that just for the people who convert NoPo's to HiPo's? Even so, why wouldn't they just use the HO throttle body and avoid that weirdness altogether?

Thanks for the info gadget!

[gadget73]

Thats the EGR spacer. The spacer is what the throttle cable bracket bolts to. The stocker is a little more than 50mm, and the HO throttle body and intake are 60mm. If you don't bore it out, you end up with a choke point right in the middle. The Mustang spacer doesn't have the mounting brackets that mate with box throttle cables. You can fab up a bracket to make it all work but either way you're either welding some metal or having some metal removed.

[DerekTheGreat]

Ahhh.

Thanks again for the info.